20 Nov
2020
20 Nov
'20
9:59 a.m.
Hi Patrik,
As to the superglue - it was the only option because the prongs are just
melted flat. To get the key mechanism out or off I had to scrape all the
melted plastic off. I then subsequently re-attach the key mechanism to the
aluminium backing board by applying a tiny drop of superglue between what
was left of each prong and the associated hole in the aluminium backing
plate. The key mechanisms can be pushed out again with moderate effort if
it is ever necessary again.
Best regards
Tom Hunter
On Sat, Nov 21, 2020 at 1:36 AM Patrik Schindler via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Hello Tom,
Am 20.11.2020 um 15:11 schrieb Tom Hunter via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org>:
I have managed to completely disassemble the bad
Osborne 1 keyboard
Congrats on that!
The silver tracks remained undamaged as confirmed
with a multimeter.
Very wise to check this while all is disassembled.
I then carefully reassembled the 3 layers,
inserted and super-glued the
keyboard mechanisms in batches, testing after each
batch.
When using super-glue, will this possibly negatively affect the ability to
disassemble the keyboard again? As far as I?m aware, the prongs are most
often just pressed flat with a hot iron to melt and thus held in place.
I did not use any glue to reattach the 3 membrane
layers so they are
held together only by the keyboard mechanisms with their prongs
protruding
through the layers into the aluminium backing plate to which the prongs are
super-glued.
Very good idea!
The conclusion is that membrane keyboards can be
fixed if your life
depends on it. It is absolutely uneconomic though. I worked
about 30 - 40
hours on the keyboard alone. Working Osborne 1s sell for between US$100 and
US$300 on Ebay.
Well, with some routine you can become an expert and do that repair in 1-2
hours. All membrane keyboards are very much alike. While I?m truly appalled
to do this for a living, I?m not frightened about doing this anymore. ;-)
:wq! PoC